Kudos to the journalists, at the Aylmer Express Newspaper for attending the site of another fatal drowning into Lake Erie this morning despite being charged by the OPP for attending a similar drowning over a year ago. John and Brett Hueston were both charged with criminal obstruction of justice when they passed through a Road Closed sign to make observations of a vehicle that had driven over a cliff into Lake Erie on June 24, 2017. It was an important acquittal of the two as it demonstrated the importance in a democracy for independent journalists to be able to inform the public of the causes of deaths independent of official government or police information. The difference between a democracy and a totalitarian regime is that in a democracy the average citizen has the right to inquiry how and why a death occurred rather than being total what to believe. That is a fundamentally important right.
While nothing of substance has been made available with respect to how this latest fatality occurred it is still early in the process. We hope that police understand the full breadth of their important role of cooperating in the democratic process by working with journalists to ensure that their equally important work is properly accomplished.